South Carolina flooding becomes case study in community resiliency

Note: This post was republished from APHA's Annual Meeting Blog

When Hurricane Joaquin hovered over South Carolina in the fall of 2015 causing historic flooding, state residents — particularly in the Midlands region — had to quickly discover what they were made of.

In the midst of disaster, researchers from the University of South Carolina Arnold School of Public Health saw an opportunity to see how residents acted and adapted to a life-changing event. They presented on their work during Monday’s Annual Meeting session “Response, Recovery and Resiliency: Understanding Public Health in Practice During and After the Flood of October 2015.”

Over 11 trillion gallons of water were dumped into the Midlands region of the state, said Heather Brandt, associate professor of health promotion, education and behavior at the Arnold School of Public Health.

“This is not something that’s becoming a 1,000-year flood,” Brandt said. “It’s becoming something far more routine and certainly climate change is playing a role in this.”

Social media played a large role in communicating the threat of floods, particularly from residents and media outlets, Brandt said. She and researchers examined tweets with the hashtag #SCFlood over four time periods, including 72 hours before Sept. 30 to Oct. 2, when residents were urged to leave areas at risk for flooding as well as the six months following the flooding from Oct. 15 through April 15. The most popular themes in tweets across all periods were about the natural environment, built environment and devastation.

Those connected on social media could glean information from Twitter about accessing FEMA assistance, resource donation, road closures and shelter availability. Access to this information contributed to the resiliency of affected residents.

“I had never seen so much bottled water in my life,” Brandt said. “We saw a lot of community resiliency coming forward and demonstrating support. People relying on each other, people visiting to play games with kids at the shelters, having shelters where people could bring family pets, not just dogs and cats.”

Communication was critical for response and recovery and crucial to residents building resiliency during and after the crisis, said Sayward Harrison, who studied community resilience during the flooding for the University of South Carolina’s SmartState Center for Healthcare Quality.

Harrison defined community resiliency as the “capability of a community to draw upon its individual, collective and institutional resources and competencies to cope with, adapt to and develop from the demands, challenges and changes encountered before, during and after disaster.”

In interviews of nearly 40 residents affected by the floods, Harrison brought up examples of that definition in action. Those included identifying a Spanish-speaking TV reporter in the Midlands region who could translate emergency messages to Hispanic residents, such as boil water advisories and stories of residents in affected neighborhoods who knew where vulnerable residents, such as seniors, lived so resources could be directed to them.

Another part of resiliency is post-traumatic growth — the change that comes as a result of trauma that involves developing a “new normal,” Harrison said.

“We’re thinking of ways we can build a stronger community,” Harrison told attendees. “People are used to the way things were but it’s good to have change.”

Let’s get our preparedness on at #APHA15!

Getting excited for APHA’s Annual Meeting in Chicago this month? So are we! The 143rd Annual Meeting and Exposition, which will be held Oct. 31-Nov. 4, will be packed with public health information, including our favorite topic: preparedness!

The Annual Meeting program, which you can scope out online now, is full of presentations on disaster planning, response and readiness. From household preparedness and community partnerships to disease outbreaks and nuclear disasters, there’ll be plenty to feed your hunger for preparedness.

Some of our top preparedness picks at the meeting include:

• “Strengthening Disaster Epidemiology Capacity in the Nation: Update on Tools and Approaches,” which will look at the ways epidemiology is used in disaster settings;
• “Protecting Disaster Response Workers: Turning Lessons Learned into Actions,” which will examine how mental health training, apps and disaster research can benefit responders;
• “Health Care Perspective on Disaster Response and Preparedness,” which will explore earthquake preparedness, pediatric planning and post-hurricane health services; 
• “Disaster Response and Emergency Preparedness,” which will include discussions on pregnant women, Ebola communications and NATO summit preparedness; and 
• “Research Perspectives on Trauma: Mitigating the Impact of Natural Disasters and War on Survivors,” which will feature presentations on service dogs and housing stability for disaster survivors.

Once you’ve had your fill of preparedness presentations — as if that’s even possible! — head on over to our Get Ready booth at the expo. We’ll be passing out free copies of our awesome 2016 calendar, featuring adorable animals and preparedness advice. We’ll also have fact sheets and other tools that you can use in your job and community — as well as some super cool preparedness giveaways. Look for us in the APHA area of the expo, at booth 1429-10E.

If you want to meet some of the fine folks behind the Get Ready campaign - including staff who work on the @GetReady Twitter, blog and website — stop by our Social Media Meetup on Sunday at 6 p.m.

And don’t forget that while you’re at the Annual Meeting, it’s important to network like a boss — with clean hands that don’t spread disease.

If you can’t attend all of these great sessions plus the hundreds of other sessions you want to attend, you can take home the Annual Meeting by purchasing RAMP: Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations. RAMP gives you flexibility to take in sessions or events on-site without the fear of missing a presentation. Stop by any registration desk to purchase RAMP.
See you in Chicago!